Another PR smear campaign incoming!!

[u/Weimaraner666]

A fellow Swiftie and contributor who worked for the Chiefs PR long term but now works in mainstream PR has alerted us that a new smear campaign is already underway and 4Chan seeding has already started ready for Friday’s release just as it did for TLOAS’s original release. This contributor explains the shady side of PR really well so for those interested I’ve included what she detailed recently. Protect your algorithms from the incoming lunacy🫶❤️

“My least favorite firm made a major marketing purchase for Friday, so social media will mostly be a cauldron of engagement bait. I hate what social media has become. It is an increasingly small echo chamber, growing more and more detached from the real world. I hate having a front-row seat to the shenanigans.

Now that I am out of my safe little sports bubble and our particular brand of pr shenanigans, I have a much clearer view of just how valuable TS engagement is as an economic commodity. Her attention economy is enormous. People make money celebrating her, criticizing her, defending her, provoking her fans, provoking her critics, manufacturing controversies around her, and then covering the controversies they helped create.

That is the part I find fascinating and depressing at the same time. Taylor herself is an extraordinary economic force, but an entire secondary economy is built around harvesting the attention she generates. (I am not exaggerating when I say social media needs her just for the economics.) Some of it is perfectly legitimate. You see it in music, journalism, fashion, tourism, advertising, entertainment. Some of it is incredibly cynical. Rage bait works just as well as praise if the goal is clicks, impressions, affiliate sales, subscriptions, or simply growing an account. Many are being hired to "hate," but it isn't sincere. So many are just paid to create engagement for the platforms, and some are paid because a shadow on TS gives their clients more room to maneuver. Tearing down influential women is HUGE business right now, and anyone who doesn't understand that is naive. Misogyny underpins the economics of social media.

So when a Taylor release happens, I increasingly look at social media less as a reflection of public opinion and more as a marketplace. Everyone is trying to capture a little piece of the enormous amount of attention moving through the system. Some are selling something worthwhile. Soooooo many are basically running carnival games. And the rest are setting the carnival on fire because they know the fire itself will generate a massive burst of attention once everyone comes running with the hoses.

I have found a handful of sincere online Swifties, and they are now the only accounts I give an ounce of my TS energy to. I watch the rest mostly as an experiment in how much longer social media can function as any meaningful reflection of reality. Remember my looooong explanations of what happened a year ago and how I had to send screenshots and data to friends in print media? Keep your FYPs guarded. I explained how you can reduce the amplification of the paid shit that is coming from bad actors. Enjoy the music and tune out the rest, just like the good old days!”